Mount Pocono keeps garbage collection, selects hauler

After more than two months of discussion and debate, everything will remain the same when it comes to garbage pickup in Mount Pocono.

MICHAEL SADOWSKI

After more than two months of discussion and debate, everything will remain the same when it comes to garbage pickup in Mount Pocono.

The borough awarded a garbage hauling contract to Kreitzer Sanitation of Frackville, the company's first municipal waste-hauling contract in Monroe County.

The contract not only ends the garbage hauling debate in Mount Pocono, but keeps municipal hauling in place when it looked like the borough was considering ending it.

If the borough had dumped its pickup, residents would have had about three weeks to arrange for their own trash hauling in 2013.

The better news is that the bid — $265,782 for 2013, with a borough option at the identical price in 2014 — came in lower than expected.

Still, residents will see a $47 jump in their annual garbage collection charges.

Here's why: While residents were charged about $153 last year, it wasn't enough to cover the actual bill, which is between $250 and $300 per home. The borough had been using property tax funds to make up the difference.

The bill is expected to be around $200 per household in 2013.

The money left from the general fund that isn't dedicated to trash in 2013 isn't going to be cut; it's likely to be earmarked for road paving. Borough Council President John Finnerty said the borough roads haven't been paved since 2008.

"Paving is usually the first thing to get cut in a budget, most places do," he said. "But we have 15 miles of road, and we're falling behind."

Borough officials said the state-funded liquid fuels money it receives — about $60,000 that could be used for paving — is barely enough to pave one mile of road. That money is used for winter road treatment and paying the monthly $1,500 electric bill for street lights.

The new garbage-hauling contract allows borough residents more flexibility than it had under the previous contract with the J.P. Mascaro.

Seasonal residents can stop service at their homes while they are not there, billing is being taken out of the hands of the borough and there will be no required separation of recycling.

As in the past, the contract only covers residential trash, not commercial. Garbage pick-up will be once a week, on Mondays.